Coalition to Deliver "Sack Lunches" to Governor, Legislators

For Immediate Release

Coalition Calls on Governor to Bag Plan to Deny Lunch to Prisoners and
Instead Adopt Real Prison Reform

CEPS Members to Deliver Plan to Cut Prison Spending by $1 Billion to
Schwarzenegger, Legislators in Sack Lunches

Contact: Brady Oppenheim
(916) 326-4330

WHEN: Press conference at noon, Wednesday, June 2; legislative
deliveries to follow.

WHERE: State Capitol, North Steps.

WHAT: Recognizing Californians’ hunger to end runaway prison spending, members of the Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS) will deliver a comprehensive plan for real reform to Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislators June 2. The plan will be delivered in brown paper bags to symbolize the futility of the governor’s sad-sack proposal denying prisoners a brown-bag lunch as a cost-cutting measure. The bags, which will be filled with peanuts, will bear the slogan, “Cut a Sack Lunch, Save Peanuts; Cut the Number of People in Prison, Save Communities.”

“We want to highlight the need for real reform instead of mean-spirited
gestures that don’t save money and don’t bring the real change that’s
needed in the state prison system,” said coalition member Andy
Hsia-Coron. “Our plan – Lower Costs, Greater Safety -- contains real
reforms that can improve safety in California communities and reduce
prison spending by at least $1 billion each year, every year – much more than the peanuts proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.”

While the governor increases overall correctional spending in his May
Revise, he also includes token proposed cuts such as a reduction to the
number of meals served to prisoners on weekends and holidays –
eliminating the brown-bag lunches. But coalition members say such
sad-sack solutions won’t go far in solving deep-rooted, high-cost
problems at the California Department of Corrections (CDC).

“Prison spending is out of control,” said coalition member Rose Braz.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger said that all departments need to share the pain,
but when it comes to prisons, this year’s budget is another Gray Davis
windfall for Corrections.”

Braz noted that CDC funding is increased to $6.2 billion, upping prison
spending by 14 percent over the last budget year. But most
significantly, she said, the governor is missing the opportunity to turn
around the state’s scandal-ridden, bloated prison system and make
progress toward eliminating California’s budget’s long-term structural
imbalance.

“Numerous polls – including a June 2003 poll by the Public Policy
Institute – show that likely California voters favor cuts to prison
spending over any other area of state spending,” she added. “But real
change and real savings will not come from denying prisoners a
peanut-butter sandwich.”

WHO: Attendees will include:
- Rose Braz, director of Critical Resistance, prison expert and
activist who has long worked for prison reform.

- Dorsey Nunn, who was formerly in prison and is now program
director for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. He also is
founder of All of Us or None, a national organizing initiative of
prisoners and former prisoners to combat discrimination against people
with felony convictions.

- Glenn Backes, director of the Drug Policy Alliance’s capital
office and an expert on cost-saving alternatives to prison.

- Andy Hsia-Coron, teacher at the Correctional Training Facility at
Soledad and chair of SEIU Local 1000, CSEA’s Unit 3, representing prison educators and librarians.

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To obtain a copy of the CEPS reform proposal, go to the website posted below or call (916) 326-4224.